I confess, Father, I am a heretic -- but less a heretic, in my shame, than a hereticaster, a wanna-be iconoclast, an aspirant to heresy who has not yet found a way to truly blaspheme the Divine. No matter what I say or do, Father, the Divine moves on, unphased, untroubled, whole and ineluctable. I am a failure!! What am I to do?? It has been thirty seven lifetimes since my last confession.

...and don't forget to see the whipmaster for an incompetent flogging, the ticketmaster for the wrong ticket, and the shipmaster so you can use that ticket to enter exile via a leaky boat.

This piece of continuation of your penance has been brought to you by the letter "M," one of the twenty-six or so letters in the English alphabet. Can you say "masochist?" Can you say "manacles?" Can you say, "MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm....?"

No, no, sir.....bad pedant!! Th' art a grammaticaster, a philologaster! The suffix of ineptitude is clearly -aster, not -master. That one letter should have so much power!! We can be grateful the Universe has ordained that it be the letter M.

It is a known, but derogatory term. It is an interesting question where it evolved from. I think it must date to WW II and I suppose it comes from the naive American reaction to discovering that the French are fond of eating the well-prepared legs of certain frogs.

I, on the other hand, am fond of nibbling on the well-prepared legs of certain French...

Amos - the origin of "frog" for "french" is well known and documented. Good Queen Bess (God Save Her Majesty!) was at one time flirting with the idea of marrying some french noble whose name I don't recall at the moment.

anyway - he was bug-eyed and reminded her of a frog - and she referred to him as "my little frog"; the term stuck as meaning "french".

well - I don't know how kinky Her Majesty and her little frog ever got. Some historians feel he was actually the closest thing she got to an actual (political) marriage - possibly because his appetites ran similar to hers

I suspect the froglegs connection would have been what made the term stick. It might even have been what Elizabeth had in mind back then. People seem to like to use dietary peculiarities when picking on terms for foreigners - Kraut, Limey, Rosbif...

I don't have time, I'm chasing down the highway for at least one more night. They've apparently decided to park Moonglow there at the hospital until her results come back. She's getting a tad cranky about it now, because she feels okay and is tired (and running out of spots) of being poked for blood samples.

More than a decade after the first planets beyond our solar system were found, astronomers have discovered about 200 of these "extrasolar planets," as they're called. Using a common-sense definition of potentially habitable planets, coupled with extensive computer simulations, scientists have calculated how many potentially habitable planets might be detected around other stars by the SIM PlanetQuest mission. ("SIM" stands for Space Interferometry Mission.)

The mission, scheduled for a launch in the next decade, will target planets with specific traits in common with Earth: a similar mass and an orbit in the "habitable zone," not too close and not too far from its parent star. With this mass and location, it's believed a planet could have liquid water on its surface and an atmosphere -- conditions considered necessary for life to gain a foothold.

The science team has shown that, in a survey of the best 120 candidate stars for hosting such planets, SIM PlanetQuest would have the sensitivity to find:

-- Planets smaller than Earth around six stars -- Planets smaller than twice Earth's mass around 24 stars -- Planets smaller than about triple Earth's mass around every star in the survey group

All planets discovered by the mission would be on a short list of targets for the future Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, which would look for direct signatures of habitable environments and even of life itself.

The roster of six stars where SIM PlanetQuest could find Earth-like planets, if they exist, includes some familiar names, visible in the nighttime sky:

-- Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, the closest star visible with the naked eye from the northern hemisphere's mid-latitudes, seen in winter along a line extending from Orion's belt -- Altair, forming one corner of the "Summer Triangle" -- Alpha Centauri, the star immortalized in the movie "Contact" and the closest bright star to Earth, visible from southernmost Texas, Florida, Hawaii and the southern hemisphere

The research is contained in a paper published September 2006 in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Its authors are Joseph Catanzarite and Drs. Michael Shao, Stephen Unwin, Angelle Tanner, and Jeffrey Yu, all from JPL.

More information on SIM PlanetQuest is available at: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/SIM/sim_index.cfm .

I am deeply moved by this story as it is the first I recall which seriously and practically talks about Terrans planning to find Terran places beyond the System. This is stirring.

well Rapaire - Boy scouts don't get credit for helping little old ladies across the street when they don't need to cross the street. it takes 24 hours for mom to drop off the board - so you can't get credit for raising her up more then once a day.

Funny you should say so, Raspaire, when it was Bunnhabain who lifted Mom in the post just before yours. How did you miss that? I do appreciate your helping Mom out, though. For those of us living far from home, busy with real jobs, it makes a huge difference to know she has you nearby, able to assist. Just don't try any funny business with the will. We will know.

Where have all his buttons gone? Long time pushing, Where have all his buttons gone? Long time ago. Where have all his buttons gone? They lie in shambles every one, When will he ever learn, Oh when will he Ever learn?

Perhpas you should investigate why you go to places where your buttons are going to get pushed and carefully read those threads just in case something of a button-pushing nature might be found within. Or perhaps we should celebrate having such a fine button-pusher in our midst to show us all our flaws, in order that we might outgrow them. What a gift!

I know why - I have a compulsive desire to see what new warped fantesies are being propounded. Just occasional my filters get overwhelmed and I respond as if it actually mattered what he-who-shouldn't-be-named says. Except I also dislike seeing falshoods proposed as truth and left without rebuttal.

There are a couple who always push my buttons also, MMario. Seems to be that way for most of us.

Moonglow is bustin' out this afternoon, and then her dad is taking her out for a nice steak dinner. They have a theory, and we will learn more next week when the crucial test comes back. If she feels bad she is to report back to the emergency room. Meanwhile we'll find a doctor down here in Fort Worth to do the second opinion and follow-up. The one in Denton is quite loutish, according to my ex, who is the one who has spoken to him. Apparently the nurses don't like him very well either--I learned that myself this morning when making inquiries and finally insisting that someone call his office and find out why he was still keeping her there when they weren't doing any more treatment. We'll get her someone who communicates better what is going on. These days of no information have been pretty tough.

Mom, I am so looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, having my son here this evening and fixing him a nice dinner, and giving the cats and dogs the attention they crave. When I got home this afternoon I took the dogs for a long walk on what is a clear, bright, cool fall afternoon. We had a great time. Their ears were back in their "travel" mode (versus the wanting to sniff all along the way in their "tracking" mode) and we did a nice tour of one side of the village.

Heeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy Moooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm -- I'm going camping tomorrow! Yup. Pat and I will be leaving for Massacre Rocks State Park (MRSP). In a cabin, but there are no cooking facilities and this is a good way to get us back, slowly, into camping.

I'll spend Saturday hiking and birding and will be back home on Sunday.

I had to go to photograph a lecture at the library this evening, and I haven't called Moonglow at school or her dad at his house because it is late. I left her a message earlier that she is to check in at least a couple of times a day. I'll call her in the morning.

It's a good time of year for camping here in Texas--it's finally cool enough out to enjoy it and the school kids are back in school so the campgrounds aren't overrun (especially during the week). Too bad my kid's in school or I could take him camping. . .

Hi, Mom. I haven't left yet. Did you know that Amos is playing some sort of nasty game wherein he says you say that I was always your favorite? I don't think that very nice or very equitable, do you? Could he be punished?

No, wait. He's from Southern California and he'd probably really like it. Maybe if we treated him nice and backed him cookies and things. I'll betcha that'd do it. (I first typed "coolies and things." I dunno, since he's from SoCa he might be into stuff like that.)

It's not the question asked, as the guru said, but the feeling behind the question asked that counts. In this case, though, neither was answered. But I am sure Rapaire's old friends Billy the Shake or Billy the Blake, or old Tom Eliot the Banker's Boy, or maybe little Bobby Frost, will chime in any minute and remedy this embarassing flaw in his repute.